Manufacture of black plates or sheets.



No. 70,068. Patented Dec. 30, I902.

' C. W. BRAY.

MANUFACTURE OF BLACK PLATES 0B SHEETS.

Rehewed Oct. 2, 1902.

(Application filed Feb. 25, 1901.

(No Model.)

INVENTOR Q WITH 1': Nonms PETERS co. PNOYD-UTHQ. wnsnmaron. u. c.

UNITED ST TES CHARLES VJ. BRAY, OF PITTSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR TOTHE AMERICAN TIN PLATE COMPANY, OF ORANGE, NEW JERSEY, A COR- PORATIONOF NETV JERSEY.

MANUFACTURE OF BLACK PLATES OR SHEETS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 717,068, dated December30, 1902.

Application filed February 25, 1901. Renewed October 2, 1902. Serial No.125,721. (No model.)

To all 2072,0117, it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES W. BRAY, of Pittsburg, in the county ofAllegheny and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and usefulImprovement in the Manufacture of Black Plates or Sheets, of which thefollowing is a full, clear, and exact description, reference being hadto the accompanyingdrawings, forming part of this specification, inwhich- Figure 1 is a diagrammatic top plan view of my improvedsystem,.and Figs. 2 and 3 are diagrammatic views showing the connectionsfor driving the finishing-rolls in opposite directions.

My invention relates to the production of black plates and sheets, andis designed to reduce the number of heatings necessary, as well as thenumber of separate rolling operations.

Heretofore in the manufacture of black sheets four heatings and fourdifierent rolling operations were required in reducing the sheet-bar tothe desired gage. By the use of my invention only two heatings arerequired and two rolling operations, and the output may be greatlyincreased with less labor and expense than is now employed.

Referring to the drawings, in which I show one form of apparatus forcarrying out my invention, 2 represents a continuous heatingfurnace,which may be of any usual type, having ahydraulic feeding device 3 atits entering or rear end. A positively-driven feedtable 4: extends fromthe other end of this furnace to a continuous roughing-mill. I haveshown this mill as containing eight stands of plain two-high rolls, andfeed-tables may or may not be used between the various rolls of thismill, as desired. The rolls may be driven in sets, as shown, by gearconnections 5, with engines 6 6, though the number of sets of rolls inthe mill, as well as the manner of driving them, may be widely variedwithout departing from my invention. The sheet-bar emerging from thelast roll of this mill is fed upon a roller-table or other support 7, onwhich it may be fed sidewise by a hydraulic pusher 8 or other suitablemechanism.

Along one side of the feed-table extends a rotary shear having a numberof shearingdisks, according to the number of plates into which it isdesired to cut the sheet-bar, and between the shears and table Ipreferably use a pair of driven feed-rollers 9, which feed the pair oftwo-high reversing-rolls 13. The heated plates may be fed into the millson opposite sides by chain-tables 14c or other suitable feed devices,and from these finishing-mills the packs may be taken to thesquaringshears 15.

I have shown the several finishing-mills as driven from a common shaft16, actuated by engine 17, and the reversing is carried out, preferably,by the means of clutch devices in the following manner: At one side ofeach finishing-mill the shaft 16 is provided with a pair of pinions 18and 19. One oftthese pinions 18 intermeshes with a toothed Wheel 20,which rotates loosely upon the driving-shaft 21, having the usualwabbler connection with the lower roll of the mill. The other pinion 19engages an idler-pinion 22, which in turn engages a toothed wheel 23,which also is loosely mounted upon the driving-shaft 21.

be reversed at the will of the operator.

In making black sheets or plates with my improved mill I may use thesame sheet-bars now employed, and these bars may be sheared to aslightly-greater-width than that of the These bars are charged sheets tobe made.

The mills may thus length for convenient handling in the followingoperations. I have shown the shears as arranged for cutting the bar infour sections, the outer two of the five shear-disks being used to trimthe ends of the sheet-bar. The sections thus cut crosswise of the barare then distributed to the different furnaces along the conveyer, andhaving been piled up in packs of from four to twelve, according to thedesired gage, these packs are heated in the furnaces and then rolledcrosswise in packs in the finishing-mills to the necessary lengthto givethe desired gage. The longer axis of the pack is parallel with the axesof the rolls when the pack is fed in. The packs may then be taken to thesquaring-shears.

The advantages of my invention result from the great saving inlaborandthe increase in the output of the mill. One roughing-mill ispreferably used to supply a number of finishing-mills, so that all themills may be kept in operation. An important advantage flows from thecutting of the partially-rolled bars crosswise into separate sections.This gives sections of a convenient length for handling, and when thesebars are piled they are preferably fed into the finishing-rolls in thedirection of their width-that is, with their longitudinal axis parallelwith the rolls. I

Many variations may be made in the form and arrangement of theroughing-mill, the finishing -'mill, the conveyers, and furnaces Withoutdparting from my invention, since I consider myself the first topartially roll the bars, divide them transversely into sepaate pieces,and then reheat and pile these pieces, and then roll the packs.

I claim- 1. In apparatus for manufacturing black plates or sheets, acontinuous mill comprising a series of sets of roughing-rolls arrangedin tandem, mechanism at the end of the roughing-rolls arranged to movethe bar at an angle to its path through the rolls, shear mechanismarranged to sever the bar transversely during its movement, andmechanism for transferring the severed sections to a finishing-mill;substantially as described.

2. In apparatus for manufacturing black plates or sheets,'a continuousmill comprising a series of sets of roughing-rolls arranged in tandem,mechanism at the end of the roughing-rolls arranged to move the barat'an angle to its path through the rolls, shear mechanism arranged tosever the bar transversely during its movement, and a conveyer leadingfrom the shears to a finishing-mill; substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand.

O. W. BRAY. Witnesses:

H. M. CoRWIN, GEo. B. BLEMING.

